Haberfield Sandstone Core Installation

About the Project

The client just couldn’t use it for most of the year. A three-month swim window on a pool that good is a waste, and they knew it.

The brief was to extend the season as far as possible without disrupting what was already a great setup. No compromise on aesthetics, no major civil works, no eyesores. Just a longer swim season.

After a site visit we identified redundant space alongside the existing shed — enough room for the heat pump without touching anything the client cared about. The challenge was getting the plumbing there. The filtration system sat on the other side of a sandstone feature wall. Core holes through the stone connected the heat pump to the existing system cleanly, with no visible pipework through the entertaining area.

The client also had rooftop solar. Scheduling the unit to run during peak generation hours meant the cost to run it day-to-day is negligible.

Challenges & Solutions

Getting pipework from the new heat pump location to the existing filtration system meant going through the stone, not around it. Core drilling through sandstone requires the right equipment and careful execution — rush it and you crack the stone.

The shed-adjacent space was practical but needed to work visually. The unit needed to sit there without drawing attention to itself.

• Sandstone feature wall between heat pump location and existing filtration system
• Core holes drilled through sandstone to run plumbing cleanly to existing setup
• Heat pump positioned in redundant space beside shed — no usable area sacrificed
• Timer set to run during solar generation hours — running costs kept negligible

Both problems had clean solutions. The core holes were executed without damage to the stone, the plumbing runs are hidden, and the heat pump sits quietly beside the shed without affecting the look of the space.